Stadium seats generally take the form of a fixed backrest and a pivotably mounted seat. The seat is pivotable between a substantially vertical standby position and a substantially horizontal use position. A resilient member such as a spring or an elastomeric equivalent, is interposed between the seat and backrest and urges the seat into the standby position. Thus when a spectator arrives at a stadium, it is necessary for him to manually move the seat into the horizontal position against the urging of the resilient member in order to sit on the seat. Such an arrangement has the very desirable advantage that when the spectators leave, the seats are automatically returned to the standby position and thus do not reduce the width of the aisle between adjacent rows of seats and along which the spectators move.
However, an unintended consequence of the movement of the seat is that the seat and backrest (which are generally moulded from plastics material) make a noise caused by the seat hitting the backrest (or a stop protrusion for the seat) as the seat returns to its standby position.
As a result, at the end of a performance, for example, as the spectators or patrons all rise from their seats, a volley of staccato like banging noises echoes throughout the auditorium. A similar problem arises where such seats are used for an orchestral auditorium, for example. Should an attendee rise to his feet, the sound of the seat hitting the backrest, or stop, disturbs the performance.
It is known to reduce this problem by the provision of an elastomeric pad or similar compressible body to be positioned on either the seat or the backrest, or both; the intention being to cushion the impact of the seat on the backrest and thereby reduce the noise to a tolerable level. The disadvantage of this stratagem is that the elastomeric pad is not inexpensive and thus the overall cost of the seating arrangement is increased. Also the softer the pad, the better the sound suppression, but the shorter the operating life of the pad.
Another problem that appears in stadium seating arises due to repeated manual movement of the seat back and forth into and out of its standby position. Particularly where the seat makes a noise as it hits the backrest on reaching the standby position, it is known for seated spectators to provide a loud clapping noise by manually moving an adjacent empty seat into and out of the standby position rapidly in order to barrack for their side or generally create a mechanical applause effect. Similarly, it is also known for vandals simply to wantonly destroy stadium seats merely by repeatedly moving the seat into and out of the standby position thereby causing accelerated wear and tear with consequent damage.
In many stadia and auditoria, a horizontal spine extends in the row direction between adjacent aisles. The individual seats are connected to the spines after the spines have been erected. In one style of mounting, the spines are provided with welded metal attachments to which the stadium seats are engaged. In another, the spines are pre-drilled and a fastener is used to secure the stadium seat to the spine. Both of these attachment methods have the disadvantage that fine adjustment of position of the stadium seat is not possible.
In an alternative arrangement, the stadium seat is provided with a body in two parts which are shaped so as to be clamped to the spine. Normally fasteners extend between the two parts and these can be tightened to increase the clamping action. By loosely attaching the stadium seats to the spine, it is possible for the each seat's final position to be determined with precision. This is normally done by setting the spacing of the seats in the front row, and then setting the spacing of the seats in the second row so that the seats in the second row fall in between the seats in the first row. This procedure is repeated for each row in turn.